Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Hierarchy

I think most people are somewhat familiar with the chain of
command in other jobs: CEO, CFO, other COs, supervisors, superiors, etc. But, if you have never worked in a lab, I’m
assuming you have no idea what the hierarchy is. The lines are blurry, but I’m going to tell
you in general how we all line up.

Principal
Investigator- also known as PI

This is
the bossman. It’s his (or her) lab
and solely he is in charge of hiring and firing people within his lab. He is also the money. Part of science is applying for grants (asking politely
for money) so that labs can be stocked with all sorts of things!

What kind of things does a lab
need? In addition to all those beakers,
flasks and stir bars that most people immediately think of, labs also need
freezers, refrigerators, centrifuges, pipettes, cold boxes and all kinds of
consumables (gloves, tubes, etc). A lab
will also need chemicals (zomg, chemicals!). I
would estimate that within my current lab, we have ~ 200 different kinds of
chemicals in either liquid or powder format.

A PI will also need a staff because
most have to give up doing hands on research and instead become the brain of
the operation. He reads, he pulls
information together, he reviews papers and writes. His staff is almost exclusively doing the
hands-on research. That’s where the rest
of these people come in. I’m going to
start at the bottom and work my way up.

High School /
Undergraduate Students

High
school students typically come to work during the summers to gain experience
and see what it’s like to work in a lab.
I can’t imagine doing that in high school. I found a lab to be overwhelming after
graduating college so kudos to high school students who have the confidence to
do this!

Undergraduate
students will spend anywhere from just a semester/summer in a lab to all four
years. Some only work during the school
year but others will stay on all summer.
Most will use their research towards their degree (as in writing a
thesis at the end of their college career) and the rest are probably
looking to put it on their resume/med school application.

Technicians

This is
where I started my life in lab.
Technicians are usually people who have just graduated college with a
degree in science. In my case, I coupled
that with not knowing at all what I was doing with my life. I felt as if I was only qualified to work in
a lab so that’s what I pursued. Typical
turnover for technicians is about 2-3 years.
That’s enough time for the newly minted graduate to say “Hey, science
rocks!” or “I’m going into finance.”

Some technicians are older, however. They enjoy the work and stay. I know some career technicians and, quite
frankly, they are awesome. While it’s
low on the totem pole, techs are really essential to efficiently running a lab,
especially very large labs.

Each lab uses technicians differently,
but in general, techs do a lot of lab grunt work. I was in charge of our personal stockroom and
needed to order things in a timely manner so we didn’t run out. I also had to maintain lab consumables that
required a procedure to them. What the
hell does that mean? I was in charge of
preparing tips, stock solutions, and common lab reagents. These were things that you couldn’t buy
directly from the store but had to mix together a few things before it was
ready to use.

Most technicians also get to do
research. Their tech responsibilities
come first, but that normally can’t fill an entire 40 hour week, so a
technician will work with an older lab member on their project and, if they’re
confident enough, branch out on a project of their own. Being a technician is an excellent learning experience
for anyone who wants to work in science.
You learn so much and will gain an appreciation for any technicians you
meet in the future.

Graduate Students

I’ve
heard them also called “pre-doctoral students,” but that’s just silly. These are students who have joined a graduate
program and will do their doctoral research in the lab. How long does it take to do all your doctoral
research? It depends, but on average it’s
~ 4-5 years. I was a graduate student
for six years but only five of those were doing research in a laboratory (my first year was
all classes and much like college).
I’d say this group is the most stable group in the lab. They are there for a decent chunk of time and
know very well how things run.

Graduate
students are watched in the beginning by older graduate students or post docs,
but their goal is to become independent researchers. They are meeting with other professors out of
the lab that govern how their research is going and how they are growing as
scientists. By the end of their time
there, they have written and defended a thesis and are ready to become post
docs (or
give up science all together because they are so burnt out…)

One
small note: different PIs have different traditions for graduating Ph.D.s from
their lab. My PI has us sign the post-defense
champagne bottle with our names and defense date. We were all numbered, as well. I believe I was the 21st graduate
student to get a Ph.D. in my doctoral lab.
Another PI has the new Ph.D. open the bottle of champagne and wherever
the cork hits the ceiling, he must sign his name and date. Getting my Ph.D. was one of the best days of
my life.

These
are the lab workers that have defended their Ph.D.s and are continuing to do
research (aka
– they are totally insane!). In
all but rare cases, these people have left their doctoral labs and picked up
research in new labs. Many stay in the
same field but some branch out.
Personally, my doctoral work was in cancer and viruses but my post
doctoral work is in cellular signaling.
I wanted to broaden my horizons.
Post docs usually hang around for 2 – 5 years. Yes, that’s another 2 – 5 years of being a
lab rat beyond your graduate work. You
are no longer required to meet with outside professors to check your progress
and are considered an independent scientist.

Staff Scientists

If you’re
a post doc too long, the institution you work for will typically rename you a
staff scientist.

Post
docs and staff scientists will eventually branch off, start their own labs, and
begin this process of getting money, hiring technicians, graduate students and
post docs so the cycle will continue.

Now
that I’ve explained the set up. I can explain the list of authors on a
published paper.

Consider
this reference (Figure 58.1):

Anyone
can write the paper: graduate student, post doc, staff scientist, technician,
even undergrads! The person who
primarily did the work is listed first and the other who helped are listed
next. The final name in the list is the
PI in charge of these people. Sometimes
labs collaborate so the last two or three names might all be PIs, but the other
ordering of names remains the same.

Aside
from the PI, who is considered the most senior in the lab? The person who has been there the longest. If you have a technician in your lab who has
been there for 14 years, they are well respected. If you are a new post doc to the lab, you are
relying on the graduate students and the post docs to teach you the ropes. If you are a new graduate student, you are
revering the post docs and elder graduate students. The lines are blurry but the general
hierarchy is there.

About the Amedeo Blog

Science is interesting, but people tend to run away from it. "It's too complicated!" or "It's so hard" are excuses. You just need it explained properly. This blog is for regular people with a typical high school science background. Some posts are more complicated than others, but I try very hard to explain it in a way that makes sense. Science shouldn't be a mystery that only Ph.D.s can understand. Stick around and tell me how I'm doing!